SBE Chapter Lobbies College on Program Cuts

In these days of tightening budgets at all public levels, decisions have to be made about what needs to be funded, what can be funded and what gets eliminated.

Such apparently is the case with Napa Valley College’s Broadcast Television Engineering Technology program, now slated for elimination.

SBE Chapter 40 in San Francisco is soliciting Napa Valley College BTET grads and employers of such grads (local companies, especially) for testimonials on the success of the program. The chapter says its effort, “SOS for Napa Valley College BTET Program,” will be presented to school President Dr. Edna Baehre-Kolovani.

In an e-mail to colleagues, chapter secretary Dane Ericksen said the college has had a Broadcast Television Engineering Technology program since at least 1985, and is an SBE-certified school, “meaning that students who graduate from that two-year program with a B or better grade point average are entitled to receive the SBE Certified Broadcast Technologist certification without taking the SBE CBT examination.”

Chapter 40 officials recently visited the campus to help launch a student SBE chapter. Ericksen said that’s when they were told that budget cuts threaten the BTET program.

Ericksen said they hope to show the college administration “what a gem they have with the BTET program — one of a few remaining in the whole country, as far as I can ascertain, based on my service on the SBE Certification Committee, which includes reviewing the course offerings of SBE-certified schools. … Any program that results in its students being selected for six of the 10 NAB Education Foundation Technology Apprenticeship Program slots has got to be saved.”